Grosjean confident of step forward in Malaysia

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean says he is confident the team will make progress with their E22 at this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Lotus endured a disastrous time in Australia as neither Grosjean nor Pastor Maldonado finished and the French racer conceded that he found the situation tough to deal with.

"I think we've made quite a lot of changes and a lot of areas where we've seen we can improve from the race data we learnt on Sunday," said Grosjean.

"So hopefully we did our homework. I don't think everything is going to be 100 per cent but if it can be a good step forward then that would be nice.

"You have tough weekends in your life. Last year, for example, in Monaco I was super-quick but super-quick in the wall as well. Melbourne was a different weekend, in that you get there and know you haven't done enough mileage in testing and don't know where you're going to be."

Grosjean admitted that the difficult situation got to him during the final practice session in Australia.

"If you're extremely, extremely lucky things go right. But basically that wasn't the case. I was shaking my head. I had to take pills after for a migraine, it was really bad," he said. "Being angry would be the best thing to get your mind out of the right place."

Grosjean nonetheless remains confident that Lotus has the potential to challenge at the front of the grid.

"I just want to jump in the car, drive and see that the power unit is responding better: the state of charge and fuel management and so on is getting better. That our brakes system is better as well, that we use properly the tyres," he added. "If we do those three things then I think maybe it will be a big step forward. It's not going to be looking for the last tenth or last hundredth.

"If we put two and two together, we're not that far off the Red Bull. But we've got to put two and two together."